The First Casualty of Game 6: College Football

Every city has its sports priorities. In D.C., it's the Redskins first, the Redskins second, the Redskins third and then the Wizards, Capitals, Nationals and a vast array of talented college basketball teams racing behind.

In Boston, things are a bit different. The Red Sox easily slide into the role of the Redskins, with the Patriots a close second (predicated by their years of recent success) and the Celtics -- NBA title aside -- still playing catch up.

Much farther down the radar lies Boston College, a relatively small school in a huge college sports conference that continually achieves more than it probably should. Last year it won the NCAA hockey title, a year after losing in the title game, reached the ACC football title game in its first season under coach the ready-for-CBS sitcom named Jeff Jagodzinski and helped launch the career of the first quarterback taken in the NFL draft, now-Falcons starter Matt Ryan.

There's plenty of reasons for New Englanders, as well as the rest of the country, to take notice of BC. Yet they won't tonight, despite the team's home field, Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, hosting the latest installment of a budding rivalry with Virginia Tech.

That's because of a cruel twist of fate designed to maximize BC's TV time. Rather than play the game in one of the afternoon slots, BC and Virginia Tech opted for an 8 p.m. start, which earned the game a slot on ESPN2.

Of course, there's another game that gets started at 8 p.m. over on TBS at exactly the same time. It involves the Red Sox. Guess which one is going to get more viewers? Here's a hint: They play with a much smaller ball.

You might think this is the first time that's happened to BC, but its not. Last year Jagodzinski's club routed Notre Dame while the Red Sox were hosting the Indians in Game 2 of the ALCS. A week and a half later, on a Thursday, they found their ESPN-televised game against Virginia Tech up against Game 2 of the World Series which, again, was in Boston.

Jagodzinski and his team have seemed to take it in stride, with the coaching donning a Red Sox hat on the sidelines during Boston's playoff run last year. Still, one has to imagine that eventually the breaks of fickle timing would work to maximize the Eagles and, particularly in the Washington area, Virginia Tech's, timing.